Author
Topic: Buell Blast is now a BOAT ANCHOR? (Read 4401 times)

I actually thought it was funny. Kind of like how Top Gear thrashes a bunch of old, somewhat still good (and some well loved) cars for humor. You may be the biggest fan in the world for the Russian Minsk 125, but even their biggest fan wouldn't be able to do anything but laugh at it when they hated on it during their Vietnam Tour special this last season.

tl;dr get your panties out of a wad and lighten up. It's anti-marketing, and if you're angry, then you were trolled hard.

There is this weird impulse amongst motorcycle manufacturers to do away with great mid sized bikes and polarise their production to either dull, small capacity, commuter bikes or tarmac wrinkling hyper bikes for mid-life crisis types to wrap around lamp posts.

In the UK, our learner bike laws accelerated this trend many years ago but I can't understand why it should be happening of its own accord elsewhere. It is a real shame that all those capable 350-500 class machines are disappearing fast.

I actually thought it was funny. Kind of like how Top Gear thrashes a bunch of old, somewhat still good (and some well loved) cars for humor. You may be the biggest fan in the world for the Russian Minsk 125, but even their biggest fan wouldn't be able to do anything but laugh at it when they hated on it during their Vietnam Tour special this last season.

tl;dr get your panties out of a wad and lighten up. It's anti-marketing, and if you're angry, then you were trolled hard.

No it's not the same thing as what Top Gear does. This would be like Top Gear setting fire to their own set, cussing out the Stig, cussing out the studio audience, and then telling you you're a dork for ever watching their show.

Or, it would be like if Kevin were to get on this forum, post a video of himself crushing a Bullett, and then tell you you aren't a REAL motorcycle rider because you chose a Bullett. NOW do you get the picture?

Would you want to buy ANYTHING from a company who told you in no uncertain terms that you were a wuss for buying something from them in the past? Would you take seriously anybody who told you to lighten up?

Logged

The Family Fleet:2008 Royal Enfield Electra 2002 Buell Blast 1973 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Convertible...and a couple of boring and more practicle family vehicles that I won't mention here.

I looked in the HD annual report a few years ago and they listed Buell Blast production figures. I thought we were small until I read their numbers. I think it was a good bike but was not a commercial success.

Kevin, like I said before, I don't have a problem with their discontinuing the Blast. That may be a good business decision. The problem I have is that Buell went out of his way to make fun not only of the bikes, but of the customers (my wife and me) who bought them.

Logged

The Family Fleet:2008 Royal Enfield Electra 2002 Buell Blast 1973 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Convertible...and a couple of boring and more practicle family vehicles that I won't mention here.

I'll offer a different perspective; I think HD should have taken the Blast engine, and used half of a Sportster 1200, and made a 600 single.

They could have made a standard(retro), a custom, and a flattracker or cafe version, called it the Milwaukee, and done it with a lighter weight Sportster frame.

This could have been HD badged, priced at about 4500 - 5500 dollars, and it would have sold like hot toddys at the North pole. Not only would greybeards like me have bought one, lots of younger people would have bought them, and HD would have gotten something it will soon desparately need, younger people who want to buy HD's, after the current older customers are gone or no longer buying.

These younger people might have decided to stay with the HD fold as they got older.

Do a search for images of "customized Buell Blasts", and see if you don't find some beautiful ideas. The HD designers could have really done some great things with this.

My opinion of Eric Buell has really taken a hit after this. If you want to kill the bike, kill it, just don't insult it, and the people who bought them, in the process.

What if CMW had rounded up all the in the pipeline iron barrels it could find, and crushed them because they were not what they should be, in Kevin's opinion? How would iron barrel owners, and RE owners in general, have felt about that?

« Last Edit: August 23, 2009, 01:00:58 PM by Alaroyal »

Logged

Dave

"The reason most people don't recognize opportunity when it knocks, is because opportunity almost wears work clothes."

I've owned three Buells, X1 Lightning, XB12S, and XB12R. I really enjoyed them. However, I have to echo some of the earlier comments. This is a bad marketing campaign.

Buell has also generated some negative publicity recently by the way AMA Roadracing (DMG) has bent a bunch of rules to help them be dominant in their series. It has rightfully alienated a bunch of folks in the roadracing community; many of whom are already predisposed to be cry-babies.

2) Mother Motor (Harley-Davidson) really doesn't know what to do with them. They're sold from dealerships that have no idea how to draw in and sell to sportbikers.

3) In my opinion, the Blast did not fit in to the Buell range. I suspect that it was forced upon Erik by Harley-Davidson so they could use it in their rider training programs.

4) The prices are way too high for the v-twin Buells.

5) Let's face it, performance is down compared to similarly priced sportbikes.... it also is down when compared to sportbikes of the same displacement.

6) Not much in the way of aftermarket goodies.

7) Not much in the way of schwag. Buell has been making motorcycles for 25+ years, but you'd still play hell trying to find a Buell coffee mug or key-fob at a dealer (but you can get Harley-Davidson branded dogfood bowls).

8 ) Not much in the way of a racing history... except when the rules are bent in their favor.

9) They have a history of niggling problems and recalls. Maybe they have it sorted by now... but the reputation is still there.

10) The Buell Riders Adventure Group was a failure.

11) ...and now they're crushing the Blast... I may be wrong, but I think it was their best selling model. That has got to disgust alot of their previous customers.... and Buell can't afford to alienate customers.

Don't get me wrong, I love Buells. Many of the things I enumerated above don't bother me at all. Unfortunately, they do bother lots of other folks.

Maybe they'll see the errs of their ways and next year reintroduce it. Of course it would probably be introduced as a classic and cost $3k more. Still say H-D should come back with the 45 cube in aluminum, probably sell a bunch if the price was comparable with the 883 Sporty, or just put it on that frame. Will.

I can understand them wanting to keep their reputation in the hot rod arena, but the bike was so good, I would have thought they could have just sold them through another manufacturer who could rebadge them. I'd bet that the Blast would be a hit in foreign markts where the "big" bikes are 250s, it would be seen as a small muscle bike.

But, it is what it is, and I guess riders who are looking for big singles will now bypass Buel and head for their nearest RE dealer. Not too sad if you think about it.

The Savage is a good clean fun bike. And for a couple thousand used, a great econo machine. An almost maintenance free sled, and belt drive and six speed trans make it a good light weight cruiser. If I ever chop out another bike I think that's the one I'll use as a platform. Will.